Breaking: Condé Nast/Wired Acquires Ars Technica — Condé Nast has acquired popular technology blog Ars Technica (ranked #5 all time on the BloggerBoard), we've confirmed. The site will become part of Wired Digital (which in turn is under CondéNet, run by Sarah Chubb).

Mike Arrington is Right, Facebook is Wrong — Mike Arrington and I had a sometimes violent disagreement on today's Gillmor Gang. — The reason we were arguing? Because we both were arguing different things. — Mike Arrington was arguing that Facebook was in the wrong …

Firefox 3 Release Candidate now available for download — Please note: The Firefox 3 Release Candidate is a public preview release intended for developer testing and community feedback. It includes new features as well as dramatic improvements to performance, memory usage and speed.

Snackr is an RSS Addict's Dream Come True — Snackr is a new Adobe AIR app that lets you display items in your RSS feeds in a beautiful scrolling ticker on any edge of your screen. I am absolutely giddy about it after only a few minutes of use. Snackr is something you'd supplement your existing reader with, not a replacement.

High-Tech Japanese, Running Out of Engineers — TOKYO — Japan is running out of engineers. — After years of fretting over coming shortages, the country is actually facing a dwindling number of young people entering engineering and technology-related fields. — Universities call it “rikei banare,” or “flight from science.”

Best Buy (BBY) Buying Netflix (NFLX) For $44? — A reader says there was chatter to that effect this afternoon, as Netflix (NFLX) pushed 6% higher on high volume. — Would this make sense? Only if Best Buy (BBY) has been persuaded that the Blockbuster (BBI) - Circuit City (CCI) deal makes sense, which we certainly haven't.

Reality Check — I have this notion to write a series of columns from time to time under the title “Reality Check” — columns intended to explain how the world of Information Technology actually functions. Because like any other entrenched, complex, and often closeted industry …

A baseball cap that reads your mind — The brain-computer interface consists of a baseball with six electrodes (one under the left ear) that detect the wearer's EEG signals. In the current prototype, the system can detect brain activity that corresponds with a person's drowsiness level.

File Sharing Comes to the iPhone — It's been a long time coming but there is finally a file sharing application for the iPhone and iPod touch. This is a sea-change moment: the celestial jukebox is now available via P2P. — iSlsk lets owners of jailbroken iPhones share music on the Soulseek network at decent speeds.

Asus to embed Linux into all motherboards — Asus is to embed a lightweight, instant-on version of Linux called “Splashtop” into all its motherboards, following good feedback from customers. — On Wednesday, DeviceVM, the company behind the distribution, said the hardware manufacturer …

PayPal XSS Vulnerability Undermines EV SSL Security — A security researcher in Finland has discovered a cross-site scripting vulnerability on paypal.com that would allow hackers to carry out highly plausible attacks, adding their own content to the site and stealing credentials from users.